


I really appreciate them

by kamja



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Comedy, Friendship, M/M, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 17:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6339301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamja/pseuds/kamja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To fulfill the following prompt: Aiba is the new kid at school and Sho is a delinquent. This is more like a budding friendship than a proper romance pairing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I really appreciate them

It was Aiba’s first day at his new school, and he was late. This was not his fault. First, his dog carried off his keys, so he had to dig them out of her treasure-hiding place behind the couch. Then, his neighbor stopped him to ask if his mom was free to babysit next week. By the time he got onto the main road, he was already sprinting. THEN, the bookstore near the school had put out a new ad for his favorite manga in the window, so he HAD to stop and look.

Ok, ok, he supposed that last part was his fault.

“Move it, slowpoke!” someone bumped into his shoulder, sending the books in his arms flying. Aiba skid to a stop and bent to pick up his stuff. Aiba looked up and saw the culprit rushing ahead. He wore the same uniform as Aiba and had a bright red bandana tucked into one pocket. Aiba shook his head and sighed. This was gonna be a long day.

Some hours later, he was sitting off to the side in the school cafeteria, trying not to look at anyone.

This was the longest day EVER.

He had no idea that schools like this existed in real life! When his homeroom teacher introduced him to his new class, half of them were too busy chatting while the other half were giving him the evil eye. He shakily said his greetings and immediately plunked down at an empty desk in the middle of the room. It wasn’t long when he realized just why a desk in the very center would remain empty. Two warring gangs were in this classroom, and the center was the no-man’s land. All through morning classes, he had to endure flying balls of crumpled paper and threats coming from both sides.

And then, one of them spoke to him.

“What’ll it be, new kid? You gonna gopher for us?”

Aiba clicked his pencil nervously. “Gopher?”

“How else d’you think someone like you will survive at this school?” the other student looked him up and down. He had a scratch on his cheek, which Aiba assumed was due to fighting. “Work for us, and we’ll protect you.”

Aiba kept a blank look on his face and didn’t answer. The other student shrugged and turned away.

Now Aiba was looking down glumly at his lunch as an argument erupted on the other side of the cafeteria. Maybe that guy in his class was right. It was only a matter of time before he got beat up!

He looked towards the group gathering around the argument. It was getting heated now and everyone was watching. Aiba recognized some of the guys from his class, including the one that spoke to him this morning. They were facing off against another group. Soon, the knot of guys started grappling with each other. It had turned into a real fight. The entire cafeteria started chanting and making an uproar while the lunch staff rushed into the kitchen.

Aiba decided that he too should make a getaway. He gathered his things and slowly got up. As he reached the door, he bumped right into someone else who was coming in.

“You again,” with a huff, the other person pushed Aiba to the side and walked towards the fight. Aiba turned and saw the red bandana. It was the guy who knocked him down this morning!

“Sakurai-senpai!” the guy from Aiba’s class shouted. Oh, so that was his name.

Sakurai seemed to be one of the feared people in the school, because he plunged both arms into the fight and parted both sides like the Red Sea.

“Nobody picks on my gang,” he said, stepping right into the personal space of one of the guys from the opposing side.

“You’re lucky Tamiya-senpai cut today,” the other guy responded, though Aiba noticed that his knees were shaking a little.

Sakurai didn’t seem bothered by that threat. His gang came up close behind him as if to create an intimidating human wall. The other guys scowled and left.

Aiba quickly decided that the library was definitely the safest place to be. He also quickly learned that dealing with his classmates was like dealing with bears. No eye contact and no sudden movements. However, he also realized that not befriending the bears might cause trouble. By the second day, many of his classmates were trying to figure out it he was smart (a new homework machine) or rich (a new ATM), or in the best case scenario, both. Aiba could feel their greedy eyes during lecture.

“Say,” he turned to the guy who had spoken to him on the first day. He was called Ninomiya. Despite their weird conversation, he remained the only one who acted somewhat decent around Aiba. For example, he didn’t purposely aim stuff at Aiba’s head. “You wanna try this candy? It’s pretty good.”

“Sure, gopher,” Ninomiya grinned and took one.

“I didn’t--”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ninomiya reached over and took another candy. “These really are pretty good.”

It was two weeks later. Aiba hummed a tune as he walked back home from the convenience store. It was Saturday evening and his parents had gone out to see some bunraku play with their friends. His brother was staying with their cousins for the weekend, so he had the whole house to himself. He was planning to get a good several hours of gaming in, so he’d gone to the store to buy snacks and drinks.

He approached a narrow alley not too far from his house and suddenly heard some noises coming from within. Aiba stopped abruptly, startled by what sounded like a fight. He sidled closer to a lightpole to hide himself. Sure enough, a group of older high-school kids came out loudly. They chatted amongst themselves and Aiba could see that some of them had torn clothes and scuffs on their faces and hands. Aiba shrank back further behind his hiding place. They were definitely a school gang, but he didn’t recognize any of them.

Thankfully, they didn’t notice him and walked off in a different direction into the night. Aiba waited a moment and slowly came out from behind the lightpole. He walked cautiously towards the alley and peered inside.

There was someone laying there, partially hidden in the shadows. Aiba recognized a crumpled red bandana off to the side in a muddy puddle. He looked back at the person laying there, who was beginning to move slowly.

“Sakurai-senpai?” he said uncertainly into the darkness. In his two weeks as gopher, he mostly hung around Ninomiya and the other gangmembers that belonged to his year. Sakurai appeared every now and then, but he seemed to have more important things to do.

It was indeed Sakurai. He sat up slowly. The bridge of his nose was banged up and his lip was bleeding. He seemed to be in a daze, but could still speak.

“Oh. It’s the new gopher.”

“Aiba Masaki,” Aiba corrected automatically, forgetting that he was supposed to be scared.

“Yeah,” Sakurai glared at him, which made Aiba flinch back. The older student spat some blood onto the pavement. He slowly leaned forward to push himself up.

“Woah, be careful,” Aiba quickly stepped forward to support Sakurai as he stumbled halfway. Sakurai didn’t seem to have the energy to refuse his help.

Wanting to stay out of it but also feeling burdened by gopher duty, Aiba found himself saying, “Why don’t you rest for a bit at my place? I live right by here.”

Sakurai’s mouth opened in disgust. “Why don’t you get lost?”

He wrenched himself free from Aiba’s grasp and started to stumble off. Aiba followed him, keeping pace by his side. After a few steps, Sakurai rounded on him.

“Why the fuck are you following me?” by now, his lip had swelled up and looked comically oversized.

“...Cos this is the way home.”

Sakurai stopped and turned around, intending to walk the other way. After a moment, he turned around again and continued walking his original direction, cursing under his breath. Aiba was puzzled for a moment, but then quickly put two and two together. The walk to the train station was farther if one went the other way around the block.

Then Sakurai turned to Aiba again. His glare was menacing. “You. You walk around the block back home.”

Aiba stepped back, the blood draining from his face. He was pretty sure an injured Sakurai could still kick his ass. He pointed towards a house to the right. “B-but my house is right here.”

“Good. Then disap--” Sakurai didn’t finish his thought, because he fainted.

 

He woke up again as Aiba was pulling him into the front entrance of his house.

“Aren’t I supposed to wake up in bed, already mended?”

“Sorry,” Aiba huffed. “You’re a little heavy.”

“Your pipe arms are too weak.”

“Are you feeling better now?”

“What?”

“You sure have a lot of energy to insult the person trying to help you.”

Sakurai wriggled himself away from Aiba and sat up. He wore a surly look on his face. “I’ll stay here. I just need a minute.”

“It’d be nice if you didn’t sit on everyone’s shoes...”

Sakurai sighed tiredly, but he moved further into the house to sit in the hallway. “Is this what it’s like to be married?”

Aiba didn’t hear, because he’d actually gone off to fetch the first aid kit.

 

“Wait, wait, hold still.”

“Oi, that stings!”

 

Sakurai looked in the mirror. He pointed to his nose.

“What the fuck is that?”

Aiba looked, trying to keep a straight face. “A bandage.”

“Why does it have Anpanman on it?”

“Because my mom babysits the neighbor’s kid sometimes.”

Sakurai looked at him as if that explanation was completely inadequate. “Where are your normal bandages?”

Aiba gladly looked in the kit, because he didn’t want to be facing Sakurai’s death glare anymore. “We don’t have any other ones right now.”

Sakurai narrowed his eyes. He held out the bandage box. “Put one on.”

“What?”

“I’m not gonna be the only idiot wearing one.”

Aiba was about to put it over his nose, but Sakurai made him bridge his eyebrows with it, creating a unibrow.

“Ahahaha...it hurts...but I don’t care...” Sakurai laid down on the floor and laughed, holding his ribs with one hand.

Aiba looked in the mirror and laughed too.

 

On Monday morning, Aiba returned to school. Sakurai left his house shortly before his parents returned and nothing out of the ordinary happened in his neighborhood for the rest of the weekend. He sat in his seat as usual and tried to keep out of everyone’s way. During lunch, he ran to get Ninomiya’s lunch and let him copy his math homework. For some reason, Ninomiya always wanted to turn in homework, even if he didn’t want to do it. Aiba noticed however, that he often got high marks on quizzes. When the final bell rang, he sighed in relief and gathered up his stuff to leave.

He was by his shoe locker when he felt an ominous presence gathering behind him.

“So this is one of the runts running around with Sakurai’s gang, huh.”

Aiba turned around slowly. He didn’t get involved in many fights, since his gophering was mostly limited to school hours. It was Tamiya and his buddies. He gulped. The guys had attempted to teach him a thing or two about fighting, but it wasn’t going well so far.

Tamiya grimaced and punched his fist into the lockers, causing them to rattle.

“What we wanna know is...where has Sakurai been hiding? He missed our fight on Saturday.”

Aiba thought back to the weekend. “Well, that is...”

“Speak up!” Tamiya pushed him, and he fell backwards onto the floor.

“Don’t touch him.”

Aiba looked up and saw Sakurai stepping in front of him. He scrambled to his feet. The wound on the bridge of Sakurai’s nose had scabbed over and he wore a fierce look on his face.

“What? You sweet on this one?”someone in the group commented. Tamiya’s gang laughed. Aiba blanched a little. Sakurai held his ground.

“You’ll get soft, Sakurai!” Tamiya swung, but missed when Sakurai ducked out of the way. 

Taking advantage of his opponent’s gap in momentum, Sakurai came up and popped a right hook on Tamiya’s chin. Tamiya stumbled back and held his jaw. He had a dark look in his eyes.

“We’ll settle this later,” he mumbled, walking off.

At this moment, Aiba realized that he hadn’t been breathing at all. He sighed. Sakurai’s back was turned to him as he watched Tamiya take off. “Thank you, Sakurai-senpai.”

“Here.”

Sakurai tossed a small box in his direction. Aiba barely caught it. The contents rattled hollowly inside. He turned it around and looked at the label.

“Anpanman bandages?”

He shifted his feet and looked off in the distance. “I don’t take stuff from little kids.”

Aiba wanted to laugh, but he also wanted to avoid getting punched in the face like Tamiya. “But...you didn’t have to...really...”

“Damn, d’you know how fucking embarrassing it was to buy those?” Sakurai crossed his arms and came up nose to nose with Aiba. “You really appreciate them, right?”

“I really appreciate them,” Aiba replied robotically, his eyes locked in Sakurai. He was too scared to even blink. Sakurai nodded and turned away, satisfied. Aiba licked his lips. “But they say that nothing should embarrass a true man....”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Aiba squeaked, cursing his big mouth. He turned to the side and hyperventilated a little.

A moment of silence passed. Then Sakurai slapped a hand on Aiba’s shoulder, causing the younger student to jump.

“You’re treating me to ramen, right?”

“Y-yeah.”


End file.
